Author and historian Dr. Caitlin Fitz will discuss her award-winning first book, Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions, on Tuesday, June 30 at 6 p.m. The virtual conversation with Museum of the American Revolution President and CEO Dr. R. Scott Stephenson is part of the Museum’s popular Read the Revolution Speaker Series sponsored by The Haverford Trust Company.
Haverford friends and family are cordially invited to attend. The event is free, but registration is required. Watch the video below to learn more or click here to register.
Our Sister Republics:
The United States in an Age of American Revolutions
Caitlin Fitz
When you look at a modern map of the United States, you will probably encounter the name Bolivar. Places such as Bolivar, New York, Bolivar, West Virginia, and Bolivar, Tennessee, are all named for South American revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar, known as “the Liberator.”” Historian Caitlin Fitz’s book Our Sister Republics explores how and why many people in the United States celebrated the revolutionary movements against the Spanish and Portuguese empires in South America in the early 1800s. They sang songs and recited toasts about Pernambuco and Caracas and named their children and towns after leaders such as Bolívar. Fitz argues that studying how and why the people of the United States related themselves to the South American revolutions can teach us about the diverse, conflicting, and changing ways the people of the United States laid claim to the principles of their own revolution in the decades after 1776.
Our Sister Republics does not strictly deal with high–level diplomacy, battles, and leaders. Instead, Fitz focuses on the common people of the United States. Newspapers published across the United States serve as key primary sources for this book to reveal the voices of the people. Fitz devotes significant attention to the ways race and racial politics influenced how people in the United States, black and white, reacted differently to the South American revolutions.
Bring your questions to our free virtual Read the Revolution Speaker Series event with Caitlin Fitz on June 30, sponsored by The Haverford Trust Company, for a live conversation with her.
or
Visit the Museum of the American Revolution website to learn more
